Medes

In Bible versions:

Medes: NET AVS NIV NRSV NASB TEV
Madai: NET AVS NIV NRSV NASB TEV
Media: NET AVS NIV NRSV NASB TEV
Median: NET
Mede: NET NIV

son of Japheth son of Noah
the inhabitants of Media, a region south and southwest of the Caspian Sea in the Zagros mountains
a people and a nation
a country on the SW coast of the Caspian Sea

---

a measure; judging; a garment
measure; habit; covering

Google Maps: Media (34° 47´, 48° 30´)

Greek

Strongs #3370: Mhdov Medos

Mede or Media = "middle land"

1) a Mede, a native or inhabitant of Media, a well known region of
Asia whose chief city was Ecbatana

3370 Medos may'-dos

of foreign origin (compare 4074); a Median, or inhabitant of
Media:-Mede.
see HEBREW for 04074

Hebrew

Strongs #04074: ydm Maday

Media or Medes or Madai = "middle land"

n pr m
1) a people descended from the son of Japheth and who inhabited
the territory of Media

n pr loc
2) land inhabited by the descendants of Japheth; located northwest
of Persia proper, south and southwest of the Caspian Sea, east of
Armenia and Assyria, and west and northwest of the great salt
desert of Iram

4074 Maday maw-dah'-ee

of foreign derivation; Madai, a country of central
Asia:-Madai, Medes, Media.

Strongs #04076: ydm Maday (Aramaic)

Medes = "middle land"

n pr m
1) an inhabitant of Media

n pr loc
2) the territory inhabited by the Medes
2a) located northwest of Persia proper, south and southwest of the
Caspian Sea, east of Armenia and Assyria, and west and
northwest of the great salt desert of Iram

4076 Maday maw-dah'-ee

(Aramaic) corresponding to 4074:-Mede(-s).
see HEBREW for 04074

Strongs #04077: ydm Maday (Aramaic)

Mede or Medes = "middle land"

1) an inhabitant of Media

4077 Maday maw-dah'-ee

(Aramaic) corresponding to 4075:-Median.
see HEBREW for 04075

Strongs #04075: ydm Maday

Mede = "middle land"

1) an inhabitant of Media
1a) located northwest of Persia proper, south and southwest of the
Caspian Sea, east of Armenia and Assyria, and west and
northwest of the great salt desert of Iram

4075 Maday maw-dah'-ee

patrial from 4074; a Madian or native of Madai:-Mede.
see HEBREW for 04074

Madai [EBD]

middle land, the third "son" of Japheth (Gen. 10:2), the name by which the Medes are known on the Assyrian monuments.

Mede [EBD]

(Heb. Madai), a Median or inhabitant of Media (Dan. 11:1). In Gen. 10:2 the Hebrew word occurs in the list of the sons of Japheth. But probably this is an ethnic and not a personal name, and denotes simply the Medes as descended from Japheth.

Media [EBD]

Heb. Madai, which is rendered in the Authorized Version (1) "Madai," Gen. 10:2; (2) "Medes," 2 Kings 17:6; 18:11; (3) "Media," Esther 1:3; 10:2; Isa. 21:2; Dan. 8:20; (4) "Mede," only in Dan. 11:1.

We first hear of this people in the Assyrian cuneiform records, under the name of Amada, about B.C. 840. They appear to have been a branch of the Aryans, who came from the east bank of the Indus, and were probably the predominant race for a while in the Mesopotamian valley. They consisted for three or four centuries of a number of tribes, each ruled by its own chief, who at length were brought under the Assyrian yoke (2 Kings 17:6). From this subjection they achieved deliverance, and formed themselves into an empire under Cyaxares (B.C. 633). This monarch entered into an alliance with the king of Babylon, and invaded Assyria, capturing and destroying the city of Nineveh (B.C. 625), thus putting an end to the Assyrian monarchy (Nah. 1:8; 2:5,6; 3:13, 14).

Media now rose to a place of great power, vastly extending its boundaries. But it did not long exist as an independent kingdom. It rose with Cyaxares, its first king, and it passed away with him; for during the reign of his son and successor Astyages, the Persians waged war against the Medes and conquered them, the two nations being united under one monarch, Cyrus the Persian (B.C. 558).

The "cities of the Medes" are first mentioned in connection with the deportation of the Israelites on the destruction of Samaria (2 Kings 17:6; 18:11). Soon afterwards Isaiah (13:17; 21:2) speaks of the part taken by the Medes in the destruction of Babylon (comp. Jer. 51:11, 28). Daniel gives an account of the reign of Darius the Mede, who was made viceroy by Cyrus (Dan. 6:1-28). The decree of Cyrus, Ezra informs us (6:2-5), was found in "the palace that is in the province of the Medes," Achmetha or Ecbatana of the Greeks, which is the only Median city mentioned in Scripture.

Madai [NAVE]

MADAI, son of Japheth, Gen. 10:2; 1 Chr. 1:5.

Medes [NAVE]

MEDES
Inhabitants of Media. Israelites distributed among, when carried to Assyria, 2 Kin. 17:6; 18:11.
Palace in the Babylonian province of, Ezra 6:2.
An essential part of the Medo-Persian empire, Esth. 1:1-19.
Supremacy of, in the Chaldean empire, Dan. 5:28, 31; 9:1; 11:1.

Media [NAVE]

MEDIA
See: Medes.

MADAI [SMITH]

(middle land), (Genesis 10:2) is usually called the third son of Japhet, and the progenitor of the Medes; but probably all that is intended is that the Medes, as well as the Gomerites, Greeks, Tabareni, Moschi, etc., descended from Japhet.

MADAI [ISBE]

MADAI - mad'-a-i, ma'-di (madhay).

See MEDES.

MEDES [ISBE]

MEDES - medz (madhi; Assyrian Amada, Mada; Achaem. Persian Mada; Medoi (Gen 10:2; 2 Ki 17:6; 18:11; 1 Ch 1:5; Ezr 6:2; Est 1:3,14,18,19; 10:2; Isa 13:17; 21:2; Jer 25:25; 51:11,28; Dan 5:28; 6:1,9,13,16; 8:20; 9:1; 11:1)): Mentioned as Japhethites in Gen 10:2, i.e. Aryans, and accordingly they first called themselves Arioi (Herod. vii.62), in Avestic Airya = Skt. Arya, "noble." They were closely allied in descent, language and religion with the Persians, and in secular history preceded their appearance by some centuries. Like most Aryan nations they were at first divided into small village communities each governed by its own chiefs (called in Assyrian chazanati by Assur-bani-pal: compare Herod. i.96). Shalmaneser II mentions them (Nimrod Obelisk, i.121) about 840 BC. They then inhabited the modern A'zarbaijan (Media Atropatene). Rammanu-nirari III of Assyria (Rawlinson, Western Asiatic Inscriptions, I, 35) declares that he (810-781 BC) had conquered "the land of the Medes and the land of Parsua" (Persis), as well as other countries. This probably meant only a plundering expedition, as far as Media was concerned. So also Assur-nirari II (Western Asiastic Inscriptions, II, 52) in 749-748 BC overran Namri in Southwest Media. Tiglath-pileser IV (in Babylonian called Pulu, the "Pul" of 2 Ki 15:19) and Sargon also overran parts of Media. Sargon in 716 BC conquered Kisheshin, Kharkhar and other parts of the country. Some of the Israelites were by him transplanted to "the cities of the Medes" (2 Ki 17:6; 18:11; the Septuagint reading Ore, cannot be rendered "mountains" of the Medes here) after the fall of Samaria in 722 BC. It was perhaps owing to the need of being able to resist Assyria that about 720 BC the Medes (in part at least) united into a kingdom under Deiokes, according to Herodotus (i.98). Sargon mentions him by the name Dayaukku, and says that he himself captured this prince (715 BC) and conquered his territory two years later. After his release, probably, Deiokes fortified Ecbatana (formerly Ellippi) and made it his capital. It has been held by some that Herodotus confounds the Medes here with the Manda (or Umman-Manda, "hosts of the Manda") of the inscriptions; but these were probably Aryan tribes, possibly of Scythian origin, and the names Mada and Manda may be, after all, identical. Esar-haddon in his 2nd year (679-678 BC) and Assurbani-pal warred with certain Median tribes, whose power was now growing formidable. They (or the Manda) had conquered Persis and formed a great confederacy. Under Kyaxares (Uvakh-shatara--Deiokes' grandson, according to Herodotus), they besieged Nineveh, but Assur-bani-pal, with the assistance of the Ashguza (? the Ashkenaz of Gen 10:3), another Aryan tribe, repelled them. The end of the Assyrian empire came, however, in 606 BC, when the Manda under their king Iriba-tukte, Mamiti-arsu "lord of the city of the Medes," Kastarit of the Armenian district of Kar-kassi, the Kimmerians (Gimirra = Gomer) under Teushpa (Teispes, Chaishpish), the Minni (Manna; compare Jer 51:27), and the Babylonians under Nabu-pal-ucsur, stormed and destroyed Nineveh, as Nabu-nahid informs us. The last king of Assyria, Sin-sar-iskun (Sarakos), perished with his people.

Herodotus says that Deiokes was succeeded by Phraortes (Fravartish) his son, Phraortes by his son Kyaxares; and the latter in turn left his kingdom to his son Astyages whose daughter Mandane married Cambyses, father of the great Cyrus. Yet there was no Median empire (such as he describes) then, or at least it did not embrace all the Aryan tribes of Western Asia, as we see from the inscriptions that in 606 BC, and even later, many of them were under kings and princes of their own (compare Jer 25:25; 51:11). Herodotus tells us they were divided into six tribes, of whom the Magi were one (Herod. i.101). Kyaxares warred for 5 years (590-585 BC) with the Lydians, the struggle being ended in May, 585, by the total eclipse of the sun foretold by Thales (Herodotus i.74).

The alliance between the Medes and the Babylonians ended with Nebuchadnezzar's reign. His successor Nabu-nahid (555 BC) says that in that year the Medes under Astyages (Ishtuwegu) entered Mesopotamia and besieged Haran. Soon after, however, that dynasty was overthrown; for Cyrus the Persian, whom Nabu-nahid the first time he mentions him styles Astyages' "youthful slave" (ardusu cachru), but who was even then king of Anshan (Anzan), attacked and in 549 BC captured Astyages, plundered Ecbatana, and became king of the Medes. Though of Persian descent, Cyrus did not, apparently, begin to reign in Persia till 546 BC. Henceforth there was no Median empire distinguished from the Persian (nor is any such mentioned in Daniel, in spite of modern fancies). As the Medes were further advanced in civilization and preceded the Persians in sovereignty, the Greek historians generally called the whole nation "the Medes" long after Cyrus' time. Only much later are the Persians spoken of as the predominant partners. Hence, it is a sign of early date that Daniel (8:20) speaks of "Media and Persia," whereas later the Book of Esther reverses the order ("Persia and Media," Est 1:3,14,18,19; 10:2), as in the inscriptions of Darius at Behistun. Under Darius I, Phraortes (Fravartish) rebelled, claiming the throne of Media as a descendant of Kyaxares. His cause was so powerfully supported among the Medes that the rebellion was not suppressed till after a fierce struggle. He was finally taken prisoner at Raga (Rai, near Tehran), brutally mutilated, and finally impaled st Ecbatana. After that Median history merges into that of Persia. The history of the Jews in Media is referred to in Daniel and Esther. 1 Maccabees tells something of Media under the Syrian (6:56) and Parthian dominion (14:1-3; compare Josephus, Ant, XX, iii). Medes are last mentioned in Acts 2:9. They are remarkable as the first leaders of the Aryan race in its struggle with the Semites for freedom and supremacy.

W. St. Clair Tisdall

MEDIA [ISBE]

MEDIA - me'-di-a (madhay; Achaem. Persian Mada; Media): Lay to the West and Southwest of the Caspian, and extended thence to the Zagrus Mountains on the West On the North in later times it was bounded by the rivers Araxes and Cyrus, which separated it from Armenia. Its eastern boundaries were formed by Hyrcania and the Great Salt Desert (now called the Kavir), and it was bounded on the South by Susiana. In earlier times its limits were somewhat indefinite. It included Atropatene, (Armenian Atrpatakan, the name, "Fire-guarding," showing devotion to the worship of Fire) to the North, and Media Magna to the South, the former being the present A'zarbaijan. Near the Caspian the country is low, damp and unhealthy, but inland most of it is high and mountainous, Mt. Demavand in the Alburz range reaching 18,600 ft. Atropatene was famed for the fertility of its valleys and table-lands, except toward the North. Media Magna is high; it has fruitful tracts along the course of the streams, but suffers much from want of water, though this was doubtless more abundant in antiquity. It contained the Nisaean Plain, famous for its breed of horses. The chief cities of ancient Media were Ecbatana, Gazaea, and Ragae. The Orontes range near Ecbatana is the present Alvand. Lake Spauta is now known as Urmi (Urumiah).

W. St. Clair Tisdall

MEDIAN [ISBE]

MEDIAN - me'-di-an.

See DARIUS; MEDES; MEDIA.